"Love is in the air, you might say about this issue. After all, a plurality of these shows express notions of love – whether it be about the self and one’s identity, a symbolic chalice that commemorates the sanctity of marriage, or the connection between an artist and their craft, no matter how taxing or imaginatively demanding. While the blustery winds and deep chill of a New York winter (and false spring, for those in town during the achingly balmy past weekend) intimidate us from traveling far beyond our doors, galleries have opened their spaces with shows that interrogate notions of intimacy, interpersonal connection, and the networks of warmth that human connection solidifies. It’s with this sentiment that readers are encouraged to step outside their doors, bundle up, and immerse oneself in something new across the city’s network of artistic spaces – where notions of love, in all its varied forms, await discovery.
Outsider Art Fair: Progressive Art Studio Collective x Shelter Gallery (February 27 – March 2) Were you able to make it to the Outsider Art Fair this past weekend? No matter, as perhaps one of the most important highlights of the show lives on in a digital and in-person community in Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan under the umbrella of the Progressive Art Studio Collective (PASC). “This is the first time that PASC has presented at the fair. We’re a very young program, and we work with about 190 artists with disabilities,” program founder Anthony Marcellini shared on the sidelines of the group’s booth, where curious visitors could step in to explore the mounted canvases as well as a portfolio of selected works on paper that the team had transported for the fair. Presenting under the banner of New York-based Shelter Gallery, the limited-run show provided insight into the expansive program that the group offers back home in Michigan – allowing participants to develop their individual artistic practices and develop skills for artistic career paths. Highlights included the transportive colored pencil drawings of Chantell Donwell, intimate visualizations of various settings through her watchful eye, as well as the watercolors of Keisha Miller, who depicts the bright expressions of her subjects and their vivid surroundings with a technique-meets-whimsical experimentation poise."
Continue reading the article at Elephant online here
Continue reading
